There is such an experiment.
The experimenter kept three monkeys in a cage with a bunch of bananas hanging in the middle of the cage.
There is a rule in the experiment: any monkey going for the banana, and the other two monkeys will get an electric shock. Soon, the monkeys knew that taking bananas was a problem for the other monkeys, so whenever one monkey tried to get the banana, the other two monkeys would stop it and even beat it up.
Over time, when all three monkeys learned the rule, the experimenters replaced one of the old monkeys with a new one. So, guess what?
First, the new monkey went to get the banana in the middle of the cage, and then two old monkeys went to stop it and beat it. You see, even without the use of electric shock punishment, the new monkey quickly realized: "Banana is taboo."
The experiment went on and on, with a new monkey being put in and replacing the old monkey; the monkey changed one after another, but the "custom" of "can’t take the banana" was preserved in the monkey group.
Anyone who dares to take the banana will be attacked by the other two monkeys, although the new monkey does not know why the banana cannot be taken.
Do you think this scene is quite familiar? Is there some inexplicable "rules" in your company that everyone follows? It is rare to think and explore the logic behind each rule and the scenarios that apply. We simply apply these cured mindsets, which have been passed down from generation to generation, into our daily work.
You can think of whether you often hear people from other departments (especially the administration, finance, and personnel departments) say, "This has always been like this... " The next time someone says that to you, you can try to ask, "If not, let's change our mind this time, and maybe we'll be able to eat bananas." Then, tell him the story of the monkey and banana.
